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- Charles Hoskinson says the current Bitcoin quantum proposal would still leave about 1.7 million BTC unrecoverable.
- He argues that coins dating from 2013 and earlier, including at least 1.1 million BTC linked to Satoshi Nakamoto, cannot be saved under the proposed framework.
A growing debate over Bitcoin long-term defense against quantum computing has taken a sharper turn, with Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson arguing that the current proposal overpromises what it can actually recover.
Hoskinson said the proposed multi-phase plan to protect Bitcoin from future quantum attacks would still leave as much as 1.7 million BTC exposed, despite claims that older coins could eventually be recovered through a final remediation phase.
Hoskinson challenges the recovery claim directly
The proposal would unfold over several years and phase out older signature schemes in three steps. First, inflows to vulnerable addresses would be blocked. Then legacy coins would be frozen. In the final phase, Bitcoin that missed migration deadlines could, in theory, be recovered.
Calling the final-stage recovery claim false, he said it is “not possible” to recover all of the vulnerable coins under the structure being discussed. In his view, some older Bitcoin can be addressed, but a meaningful tranche cannot. He put that figure at 1.7 million BTC, currently worth around $127 billion.
Pre-2013 coins sit at the center of the problem
Hoskinson said the most vulnerable segment includes Bitcoin held in wallets dating from 2013 and earlier, before the introduction of the BIP-39 seed phrase standard. According to him, those coins would fall outside the practical recovery path laid out in the proposal.
He also pointed to the most symbolically sensitive piece of that supply. At least 1.1 million BTC, he said, belong to Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.
That makes the argument more than theoretical. If Hoskinson is right, the proposal would not only fail to recover a large block of dormant coins. It would also leave some of the oldest and most closely watched Bitcoin in the system permanently exposed to a future quantum threat.
For Bitcoin, that leaves an uncomfortable question hanging in the air. Even if the network can harden itself over time, can it really protect its oldest coins, or is part of its early history simply too far back to save cleanly now?
